The White House suggested reporters should out Democrats on Capitol Hill caught grumbling about a group of Senate Republicans being the first lawmakers invited to the White House to meet with President Biden.
During a press briefing Monday, a reporter relayed that some unnamed Democrats are concerned that members of the opposition party scored the first face-to-face meeting with the new Democratic president. Biden is due to sit down with 10 Republican senators later in the day.
Biden extended the invitation to those Republicans on Sunday so the two sides can discuss the lawmakers’ $618 billion counterproposal to his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
“Are there any specific Democrats you want to call out?” Psaki asked, querying whether it was “just people talking about it in hallways.”
Members of Congress sometimes speak to reporters anonymously or even off the record to give journalists a clear picture of a situation without hindering their leverage in negotiations. Even less than a few weeks since taking over at the White House, Psaki’s own press office has chatted with reporters under the same rules or issued statements attributed only to an unnamed official.
There likely will be more griping from Democrats after the Biden-GOP meeting. Psaki said the president and top White House aides had been in “very close touch” with House and Senate leadership, as well as with Democratic lawmakers “across the political spectrum.”
Biden is meeting with Republicans on Monday because “they made a good-faith effort to put the top lines of a proposal forward, and he wants to have that engagement and encourages that sharing of ideas.”
The small group of Republican lawmakers has put forth a proposal to negotiate the next coronavirus package after Republicans balked at the cost of Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. The president has said repeatedly that he hopes to garner bipartisan support for his first major bill.
The White House is “escalating” the number of meetings to discuss the package this week while “there is still time to make changes” and “have a discussion,” Psaki added, a day after Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy contended in a televised interview that Biden and his aides had yet to reach out to any GOP senator.
He is part of the 10 Republicans slated to huddle with Biden, meaning he will step foot on the dark-blue carpet with the presidential seal laid down on Jan. 20 before any member of the president’s own party.
“I can promise you we’re less than two weeks, and there’ll be many Democrats in the Oval Office,” Psaki said. “This is just part of our ongoing effort to engage directly.”
